Friday, September 14, 2012

Resident Evil: Retribution Review

Same old, Same old we've been here before

Listen here I am a fan of Resident Evil (1-5 and all its iterations) and I still find a place in my heart to like the Resident Evil films. Though I would like them to stay truer to the source material I'd say that its probably not going to happen since its this far go already. This franchise is the highest grossing film adaptation of a video game to date and while that may not be saying much (trust me it isn't) these movies are at best a average contemporary action movie at best and a cheap knock off and disgrace to the whole mythos at worst, but I digress back on topic.

Taking place directly after the conclusion of the 4th film Umbrella attacks the survivors on the ship and a furious battle ensues, Alice gets in the way of a explosion and is thrust into the dark abyss of the ocean seemingly destined to die (again) then she wakes up in a Umbrella facility and the rest is pretty much copy and paste from the previous 4 films. Now this in itself would truly piss me off as I would see this as merely a cheap recap of the last 4 movies and filler for what would seem to be a epic conclusion (and boy does it look epic) to the film franchise. Some more game characters make a appearance and then subsequently leave just as fast as they came, but again these characters for the most part had little roles in the games so it made no difference in this movie. After watching this movie I came to the conclusion that they deliberatively kept this movie confined and small feeling so they could go out with a bang, choosing to go more the route of the 1st film as opposed to the 2nd or 3rd. While this is a fairly common trend with franchises in Hollywood it still makes me feel cheated a little, why couldn't there be just a tad bit more substance in this film and why do I have to wait for the next one to satisfy me (or in theory the next one doesn't end the franchise and just makes way for a whole new set of films I don't know) that is a question for another time I suppose.

With all that being the action is still great and while the 3D is better then the last movie it doesn't add anything but gimmicky effects in the film, the soundtrack consists of all electronic house, beats, club music, and various other forms of tunes that I do not care for much. Overall this is still a fairly good action movie and while it still leaves a whole lot left to be desired it is still worth a watch if you already have invested your time into this franchise.